Has a wealth of expereince in international development

Save the children has appointed its new chief executive.

Gwen Hines, the executive director of global programmes at Save the Children UK, has been promoted to take over the post.

Hines has been with the charity since 2018 and replaces Kevin Watkins who announced in March his plans to step down.

She has worked in international development for 20 years, most recently as International Programmes Director at the Department for International Development (DFID).

Prior to that she was UK executive director for the World Bank Group (2012-2015), where she helped to broker major reforms to the Bank's procurement and evaluation policies and provided oversight of Britain's $5bn funding.

Hines has also held the post of country director for DFID in Bangladesh and Malawi, and she has played a variety of strategic roles shaping the UK's engagement with Africa through the G8, DFID's strategy on HIV/AIDS, and approaches to EU enlargement.

The charity pledged last year that people of colour would make up at least one-quarter of its senior management team by the end of 2021 as part of a drive to make it an anti-racist organisation.

Save the Children UK, which has an annual budget of more than £250m, said Hines would be paid £143,000 a year, the same as Watkins.

“I’m determined to ensure that every pound raised for our programmes in the UK and around the world is spent on making maximum impact for children,” she said.

“We’ll be consulting children as never before to make sure we’re respecting their wishes in our work alongside them.”

Tsitsi Chawatama-Kwambana, chair of Save the Children UK, said: “Gwen has an outstanding track record in supporting the development of staff, building effective teams and delivering results.

“I’m thrilled to have her as chief executive and the board is confident she will bring a strong focus on impact and people-centred leadership to Save the Children UK and our global movement.”